By Carmel DeAmicis On January 3, 2014 2013 was both a big and little year in the world of venture capital. In terms of exits, VCs saw 20 billion less in capital compared to 2012, a significant decrease. But at the same time, 2013 marked the most IPO…
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Inside “the richest niche there is” — StockTwits announces new CEO, funding
By Sarah Lacy On January 3, 2014 Not everyone agrees that founders make the best entrepreneurs. Exhibit A: Howard Lindzon has confirmed reports that he has “fired” himself as CEO of StockTwits and hired John Melloy, formerly of CNBC, as his replacement…
Does Apple hate bitcoin? A look behind Gliph’s (temporary) removal from the App Store
By Michael Carney On December 9, 2013cApple rules its iOS kingdom with an iron fist. The company rejects apps from its App Store, often without explanation and ocasionally seemingly in conflict with its own stated rules or prior behavior toward comparable…
Pierre Omidyar in 2009: “Anybody who publishes stolen info should help catch the thief”
By Paul Carr On December 7, 2013As regular readers will know, over the past few weeks, Pando has published arguments on both sides of the debate around the fact that Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras, the only two people with access to Snowden’s NSA…
Airbnb says this man does not exist. So I had coffee with him
By Cale Guthrie Weissman On December 8, 2013I’m in an ancient, cramped lower Manhattan cafe, waiting for a Man Who Does Not Exist. I order a large coffee, take a seat at a table of my own, and wait. At one of the others, a couple sits, existing. They…
What Twitter CEO Dick Costolo learned at Google
By Nathaniel Mott On December 6, 2013Prior to joining Twitter, Dick Costolo spent two years working with Susan Wojcicki at Google. During those two years, he learned a few things that he would apply to his work at Twitter first as its chief operating…
5 potential pitfalls of the Innovation Act
By Hamish McKenzie On December 4, 2013Tomorrow, the US House of Representatives is likely to vote on the Innovation Act, a landmark bill that has bipartisan support and would make life harder for the patent trolls that file frivolous lawsuits in order…
Detroit’s financial criminals leave evidence the size of a hockey stadium
By David Sirota On December 4, 2013Every now and again there’s a piece of crystal clear evidence left at the scene of a complex financial crime that shows, beyond any reasonable doubt, what went down. If future generations want to understand why the…
The bitcoin market is struggling with illiquidity as prices and demand rise sharply
By Michael Carney On December 3, 2013The price of bitcoin has quintupled over the last five weeks, rising from a price of $200 on November 1 to $1,071 currently. Ignoring for a moment arguments for and against bitcoin’s long-term viability and the…
Viral content is going to be a terrible business model
By Bryan Goldberg On November 29, 2013Last week, Business Insider published a list of some red-hot, up-and-coming media properties that have achieved monster traffic numbers seemingly overnight. BuzzFeed and Upworthy are the best known of the bunch,…
Forget Snapchat and WhatsApp for a second – Kik is the dark horse of the Internet
By Hamish McKenzie On November 29, 2013Facebook and Google were both said to be trying to buy WhatsApp. Japan’s Line is mulling an IPO. China’s WeChat is becoming a threat to the country’s equivailent of PayPal. Snapchat turned down a $3 billion…
The Privatization of Snowden’s Secrets: Glenn Greenwald responds
By Paul Carr On December 1, 2013This morning, Glenn Greenwald published a lengthy response to Mark Ames’ investigation, published here on Pando, into Greenwald’s “privatization” of Edward Snowden’s NSA secrets. First things first: I’m pleased…
Keeping Secrets: Pierre Omidyar, Glenn Greenwald and the privatization of Snowden’s leaks
By Mark Ames On November 27, 2013Who “owns” the NSA secrets leaked by Edward Snowden to reporters Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras? Given that eBay founder Pierre Omidyar just invested a quarter of a billion dollars to personally hire Greenwald…
Bitcoin, you have a China problem – Pando Daily
By Michael Carney On November 26, 2013By all metrics and accounts, bitcoin’s popularity is exploding across the People’s Republic of China. It now boasts the world’s most active bitcoin exchange, BTC China, the greatest number of bitcoin mining…
Why Snapchat is screwed – Pando Daily
By Shane Snow On November 25, 2013(This post originally appeared on LinkedIn Influencers. Follow Shane Snow.) Last week, Business Insider chief Henry Blodget wrote a post titled, “EXCLUSIVE: How Snapchat Plans To Make Money.” With a juicy title…